"One More Dawn"

I have been fun playing around with my new "Winter Wishes" scrapbook kit that my sister gave me for Christmas.  I came across a really cool sketch made by Karolina, aka "Drycha," at scrapbook.com and was inspired to make a layout using it.  Here it is:

Another contributing factor in the making of my page is the fact that we are probably going to see the move, Les Miserables tomorrow night.  One of my favorite songs from the play is "One Day More!  I was prompted to use the lyrics after seeing and photographing the sunrise this morning.  I am always up early, went out to take some pictures because it was so beautiful!!!!  I also took some pictures of the moon in the sky as it was still up.

Anyway, without further ado, here is my layout:

I did some masking, used some paint and cardboard, and machine stitched the circles.  And the best part is that my friend Vickie aka "Happy Go Lucky," from scrapbook.com sent me the felt snowflakes which go perfectly here!!!!  Thanks so much, Vickie!   . . . and Karolina for the wonderful sketch.

Well friends, it is almost the end of another year.  Can you believe that New Year's Eve is tomorrow?  We will be arriving in 2013 pretty soon.  Unbelievable how fast time flies!

Happy New Year to you all!  I wish you many blessing in 2013.  Thank you all so much for supporting my blog this past year.  

We Believe

I absolutely love the sketch at My Creative Sketches this month.  I was surfing the web for scrapbook sketches and came upon their blog.  They have a sketch a month and give out a wonderful prize chosen randomly, too!  Here is their sketch for this month's challenge:

I woke up this morning with the scrapbook bug.  I know that all of you scrapbookers out there know what that is!  I felt like I just had to make a scrapbook page with one of my pictures taken during the December holiday season.  And I received the Echo Park "Winter Wishes" collection as a Christmas gift from my sister, Patty and was itching to use it!

So, I decided to convert one of my favorite photos from Christmas morning to black and white:

And here is the layout I created using the awesome December sketch at My Creative Sketches:

Thanks, My Creative Sketches, for the inspiration!

I hope you are all enjoying your holiday season.  Anne has been loving having Katie home and hasn't left her side!  It has been wonderful to see the 2 of them together again for the holidays!!!

And, I want to take this moment to wish you all a very happy new year.  I hope you have one filled with many blessings!

And thank you so much for your support and for stopping by to visit my blog today.

The Christmas Season

I would love to share some photos with you from our Christmas season  beginning at the start of December.  It has been busy, and definitely filled with hustle and bustle, but the joy of the reason for the season never leaves our family far behind!  God has truly blessed us in so many ways!

We began our Christmas season by inviting my sister and brother-in-law to our home to help decorate our tree.   It was become a family tradition, and we look forward to it each year!  Part of the tradition is that each of us has to wear a Santa hat.  Here's mom, Aunt Karen, and Anne.  (of course, Katie was missed!!!)

And Dad and uncle Tim, too!

 As you can see, Kita just had to get into the action!

 To celebrate the season, Anne's school had an open house, and their gingerbread villages were displayed!  All of their creations were so amazing and very creative.  And we realized why there was no coconut at our local grocery store!

 John's birthday falls in December.  We celebrated his big 5-0 this year.

We had dinner with our family at Kome - a local Japanese restaurant!

 The weekend before Christmas, my mom invited our kids to the Fearless Fire Company for a Christmas celebration.  Anne was chosen by the funny magician to be one of his helpers.

 And so was Logan.

 Of course, Santa and Mrs. Claus were there handing out gifts for all of the children:

Then back to my mom's home to decorate gingerbread houses.  This has become a family tradition and a beloved one, at that!

Here's Anne:

and Logan:

and Owen:

 And of you look closely at my mom's tree, there is a gingerbread house ornament that Gabi gave her a few years ago to commemorate this wonderful tradition!

One of the happiest parts of that day was that we got to see Gabi and meet her boyfriend, too.

(Aunt Karen took this picture - thanks Aunt Karen!)

 Christmas eve was magical. Santa arrived with lots and lots of gifts:

It started snowing on Christmas eve, making it a beautiful white Christmas.  Everything was covered in a blanket of soft snow.

And it looks like Santa's reindeer were here and left tracks in the snow!

Here's a photo taken in our kitchen.  My sister, Karen, made me that ceramic tree many years ago.  I love it.  The Santa was a popcorn container when we went to the Christmas Spectacular in NYC, also many years ago.  And the snow couple was made by my husband's cousin's wife!  As you can see, I love to save everything.  Also displayed here is Anne's gingerbread house:

And drum roll, please . . . . . . . Christmas morning finally arrived.  Anne was up at 4:00 AM with Kita!!!

Here are Katie and Anne, after opening all their Christmas gifts.  The best gift is that they got to spend Christmas together.

 Anne went outdoors and played in the snow in her pajamas!

Afterwards, we went over to my mom's to have Christmas dinner.  Here's Aunt Patty and Katie. (this photo was taken by Aunt Karen - thanks!!!!!)

 And yesterday, we enjoyed a second Christmas with the Fritchmans!  Here's Sarah, Michael, Katie and Anne in front of the tree:

A big "say cheese" moment!!!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas!  I think you are all part of a most wonderful gift that keeps on giving all year long - the gift of your friendship!

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today.

Scrap Africa's Challenge #12

I came across a beautiful challenge blog the other day, entitled Scrap Africa!

I recognized some of my scrappy friends on the design team, so I thought I would give one of their challenges a try.  Then I read on and found out that challenge #12's subject is "filmstrip!" I thought it was a pretty cool coincidence and that I just purchased Tim Holtz's filmstrip die cut at Hobby Lobby, so I had to make a page for this challenge.

Here is my layout created just for Scrap Africa:

I used another photo that I took right after the first snowfall we had in late November.  I went out to take pictures of the snow, and turned around and saw my shadow.  It was a pretty magical moment, so I wanted to capture it on a scrapbook page.

Thank you, Scrap Africa, for the wonderful inspiration!!!

We also had some more flurries last night, which covered things with a little blanket of snow, making things look beautiful this morning!  Here are some photos that I took:

I hope you are all enjoying the hustle and bustle of the holiday season!  Thank you for stopping by my blog today!

Color Me Scrappy

This week's Color Me Scrappy color scheme is a really cool one!  I had so much fun making my layout for Challenge #22!

Here are the non-traditional holiday colors:

Aren't the colors beautiful?

And for this challenge, there is an extra twist:  you must also use ribbon somewhere on your layout!
Please check out Color Me Scrappy this week and join in on the fun.  And don't forget, you have a chance to win a fabulous prize, a $20.00 gift card to The Beary Scrap store during the entire month of December.

So without further ado, here is the layout that I created using the above colors and ribbon:

I took the photo during our first snow fall of the season!  It was so beautiful, but it is raining now . . .

Thank you all so much for stopping by my blog today.  It's time for me to go - we are taking my husband out to celebrate his FIFTIETH birthday today.  WOW!!!!!  Here's a photo of him from college:

Wasn't he cute - and he still is!

Happy Birthday John!!!!

A Poetry Tea!

Anne's 4th grade class had a poetry tea during lunch this past Friday!  It was so darn cute and best tea ever!  Here are some of the highlights:

I was able to take a 1/2 day off work, which made it possible for me to attend.  Thank you, bosses for allowing this at such short notice!

As I arrived at the tea, we were greeted by our children who took our coats.  Then we had yummy treats to pick from:

 and different kinds of tea to drink:

 Anne showed me around her room and I got to see her class's poetry displayed as an ornament on a tree:

Here's a close up of Anne's:

 Each student read three of their favorite poems!  Here is Anne reading her poem entitled "Christmas Tree:"

A slide show accompanied the readings:

 As we watched, we got to partake of our goodies:

and afterwards, Anne and her friend posed for a photo for me:

I got to take her book of poems home with me!

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed seeing this wonderful display of talent by Anne and the rest of the students in her class.  It was awesome!  Children certainly are our future . . .

Thank you to her teacher for hosting this wonderful event.